The field of the disclosure relates generally to fluid transport systems and, more particularly, to fluid transport systems including flow measurement systems for measuring characteristics of multiphase fluid flows.
Fluid transport systems include fluid processing equipment, such as pumps and compressors, to facilitate fluid flow through the fluid transport systems. Equipment design and the performance of fluid transport systems are enhanced by understanding the characteristics of fluid flow through the fluid transport systems. Some fluid characteristics are estimated for various equipment systems using computational fluid dynamics tools. However, the estimates are sometimes erroneous or based on models that do not represent the real-time operation of the fluid processing equipment. Accordingly, at least some known fluid transport systems include flow measurement systems for measuring the characteristics of the fluid flow. For example, flow angle probes are used to detect the flow angle characteristics of fluid flowing within the fluid transport system.
In at least some known fluid transport systems, fluid is transported in a multiphase state, which presents additional challenges for measuring characteristics of the fluid. The multiphase fluid flow introduces error in measurements taken by known flow measurement systems. For example, gas of the multiphase flow is sometimes entrained within passageways coupled to a pressure transducer of a flow measurement system. Within the passageways, pressure differences due to unknown fluid columns and surface tension between the fluids (e.g., gas and liquid) result in error in the pressure measurements. Therefore, it is necessary for a flow measurement system to account for the gas phase portion of a multiphase flow in order to increase accuracy of flow measurements. At least some known fluid transport systems operate at relatively high pressures when handling multiphase fluid flow. For example, some fluid transport systems have operating pressures of approximately 200 bars. Accordingly, the flow measurement systems have to withstand high operating pressures. In addition, the flow measurement systems have to be accurate in a low relative pressure range to capture the variations in dynamic pressure of multiphase fluid flow.